How to Exceed in the NQS using Kinderloop
This wonderful story helps explain how you too can gain exceeding in the NQS assessment using Kinderloop.
My name is Amanda and I am the Director of Bulli Community Preschool. I have been Directing for 2 and a half years. Prior to this I have had 8 years experience as an Early Childhood Teacher and have been in the childcare industry for over 18 years.
My service recently went through NQS utilising Kinderloop to showcase how our centre implemented the NQS and we were able to achieve exceeding in all 7 quality areas.
Through implementing Kinderloop into the service we have discovered a long list of benefits that have allowed us to improve our centres quality, maintain quality practices and clearly demonstrate how this links to the regulations and National Quality Standards.
My team is now much more aware of the Early Year Learning Framework and able to interpret children’s learning using this tool. Educators attach a tag based on an interpretation of which of the Learning outcomes children are meeting along with developmental milestones throughout their posted experience. Instantly you have a post for parents and an observation with interpretations and link to the EYLF. This means that not only are parents seeing children having fun at the centre they are also much more aware of what children are gaining through the experience and aware of the Early Years Learning Framework.
Kinderloop allowed us to showcase all of the great experiences that we involve children in each day and demonstrate to our assessor that these are a part of our every day. Experiences such as watering our garden, planting new vegetables, using our vegetables in our cooking, learning about our worm farms, recycling, up cycling, conserving water are all apart are tagged under “sustainability”. This way when our assessor visited it was a matter of searching for the tag “sustainability” and all of our related posts appeared. This way our assessor could observe that these were common practice within our centre.
My team previously struggled with time to get through endless observations. With Kinderloop they are now on track, actually enjoying the programming process and much more efficient resulting in more quality interactions. Kinderloop allows them to instantly upload a post with linked outcomes. The search function allows them to search for their focus child, find out where they may need more observations and allows them to see if they have observed the whole child across all learning outcomes and developmental milestones.
Parent communication is always tricky to chase and document. Our parents are much more engaged now and aware of what is happening within our service. Parents are initiating conversations with children and educators about what is happening in the service and the learning occurring and we are seeing much more continuity between home and preschool. It showed our assessor that we are striving for genuine partnerships with families which is the goal for all high quality services. I was able to show this to our assessors by searching our tagged parent’s communication and also by sharing comments that parents had added in relation to our posts. My team are feeling more valued as early childhood professionals as all their hard work is being acknowledged and appreciated by parents.
We have a QIP tag which demonstrates part of our day that demonstrate we are working toward meeting the improvements within our Quality Improvement Plan. As we continue to strive towards improving our service Kinderloop allows us to document the strategies we use and the strengths we have developed which we can then transfer to our QIP.
Lengthy Newsletters full of information that overload parents and take ages to prepare are no longer needed. Kinderloop allows us to upload information as it is important in small informative posts which are much more effective. We’ve also reduced the amount of paper used to notify parents of special days that would of previously been wasted on those lengthy newsletters. Another plus for sustainability!
Our links with the community are clearly demonstrated through a simple tag ‘community involvements’ and once again the touch of a button and the search function.
Our Kinderloop acts as a day book and daily evaluation and clearly highlights all learning, individual, group, planned and spontaneous throughout the centre each day. Parents can view Kinderloop on their own personal device or a full news feed in our foyer on drop off and pick up via our centre laptop. It is also a great way to highlight our centres strengths as new enrolments or visitors walk in the door.
During our NQS visit I was able to simply search a tag relating to what part of our program or practise they wanted to see. I didn’t need to search through lengthy portfolios, day books or evaluations. It was all there, at the tip of my fingers to clearly and confidently demonstrate. Our assessor was given access to our Kinderloop during our assessment process which allowed her to search through our posts to find additional evidence which is of great benefit.
Overall Kinderloop has been invaluable in demonstrating how our centre provides a quality service relating to NQS. Our knowledge of the EYLF, planning for children, sustainability, children’s health and hygiene, the regulations, parent and community relationships, our quality improvement process, sharing of knowledge are all clearly demonstrated throughout our posts and can be identified through a simple touch of a button. No more tedious writing, storage of bulky day books, cutting, pasting or gluing of pictures for day books! My Team are all on board and much more motivated, our families are all on board and raving about how much more included they are within the entire program. We won’t look back after being able to use this fantastic app to our full advantage and with exceeding results.